Breathe
by HeadOverHeelsInHate
Summary: Two shot. He has this effect on her, one where she constantly needs to tell herself to BREATHE. She can't breathe with him around but can she really breathe without him? Well, she just might have to find out.
1. Chapter 1

**Steve: M owns a copy of some of the MR books. A _COPY_, not the actual series. No copyright infringement intended.**

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Breathe

Hey you,

Have you ever felt like you couldn't breathe, but for all the wrong reasons? Not the kind of magical 'he (or in your case, she) took my breath away' feeling, but the kind where you're gasping for breath but nobody hears you?

I remember the first time you took my breath away.

We'd been friends forever. Best friends. It was after the crash. You were lying in a heap on the dirt road, having fallen from the cliff above. Your breathing was ragged and blood was seeping through your shirt as you struggled to keep your eyes open.

I'd never been as afraid as I was then. I kept waiting for your breath to stop coming, and my own breath wouldn't come because I was so afraid for you. I think the lack of oxygen shorted out my brain because on some odd impulse, I kissed you.

And something between us changed at that instance. Of course, I only later realized what.

Fortunately, a man showed up a moment later and brought us out of your post kiss shock, calling the ambulance.

I remember watching them haul you into the ambulance and drive away. I remember anxiously sitting in the car, guilt gnawing at my heart as the man drove me to the hospital.

Everything ended up being okay, though you were left with a rather large, ugly scar on your side. Things went back to normal between us but I always felt as if the memory of sudden kiss hung in the air between us no matter how much I tried to forget it and push it away.

But I couldn't forget it and I don't think you could either seeing as a few weeks later, you took my breath away once again.

Only this time it wasn't bad, it was, well, breathtaking.

We were sitting in our favourite cave behind my house. It was dark and we were alone. That is generally a good time for a hormonal teenage boy to make a move. Not to mention that with the moonlight shining down on us, well, it was sort of romantic. But I never thought we'd be anything more than platonic.

But you kissed me that night.

And I don't care what other people say, best friends, well people who are just best friends, don't kiss like that. That wasn't an in the moment 'I'm so worried', just like that sort of kiss. You kissed me like you liked me or even loved me. And I guess you did, I just wasn't ready for that then.

Your lips were soft against mine, and I loved it. I also hated that I loved it. You took my breath away, as well as my brain.

And I'm mature enough now to admit that it was kind of amazing.

But back then, the moment my mind came back from wherever it had fled to after your lips touched mine, I realized that it would wreak our friendship, which I valued above all else, plus I wasn't exactly mentally prepared for that, hence why my brain ran away.

So I fled with my returned brain and breath.

Now, I kind of wish that I'd listened to my fourteen your old brain, that I hadn't let myself get involved in anything more than platonic with you. Maybe we'd still be on speaking terms then.

But obviously I didn't, and obviously you didn't take the hint, not that you've ever really been able to take a hint.

Oh, well, the next time it was my fault.

I was high on the drugs I'd been given for the pain of having my wisdom teeth removed. I was dopey and sure I looked like a chipmunk, but you had the decency to tell me that I did not look like a chipmunk even though I had, and still happen to have, the pictures to prove you wrong.

That time my brain really had run far, far away, off to Neverland, because for some odd, unknown and embarrassing reason I told you I loved you. Of course, I was loopy and unaware of what I was saying but that still was the first time I'd told you that I loved you in a non-friend-ish sort of way.

But you, being you, had to take an already embarrassing moment and make it even more embarrassing by using it against me.

We were fighting over where we wanted to camp that summer. I was frustrated and you were amused, and that only served to make me angrier. So I shouted that I hated you and you just smirked and quoted my embarrassingly out of wits time.

'I love you. I love you thiiiiiiiiiis much.' Remember that?

Well, that made me furious, so I punched you and ran off. Or tried to. But you're my best friend, or you were, and you know, knew, whatevered me better than anyone else. And apparently my middle name is 'Charging-Off' so of course you knew that, so you stopped me.

And then you kissed me again. Blah dee, blah dee, fan girls squealing. You took my breath away yet. Blah, blah, blah. More squeals. Though you do deserve a small tidbit of credit since you did take my breath away twice in less than an hour; once from pissing me off and once from kissing the piss off me. Not literally, and not literal piss, by the way, just in case you forgot. Because that would be gross to the extreme.

And once I'd caught my breath, I spent it on running off and thankfully, you didn't go after me.

Unfortunately, you're the king of stubbornness and insisted on continuing to steal my breath away from me. So about a month later, when I thought everything had gone back to normal, and that that 'thing' between us, that Iggy would call sexual tension and Nudge would call love, had gone, you reverted back to your mind numbing and dumbing ways.

Maybe you recall this, but as you're stupid and I hate you I'm going to take it like you don't. So if you want to pull a Nudge or even just say a word, I suggest you shut it because you know the next time I can kick your ass the next time I see you (which better not be before I meet you in Hell).

So we were sitting at the edge of the cave I mentioned earlier while our friends slept further inside as this was the place we'd finally agreed to camp at. Oh yeah, in case you'd forgotten who those friends were like you seemed to have forgotten me, they were Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angle.

Anyways, I think you grew a creepy yet romantic bone because I remember you staring in to my eyes, not a smirk in sight as you smoothed my hair down my back. You leaned forwards and I asked what you were doing because I was (possibly still am, not that its really any of your business) hopeless in the romantic department.

But you had it down pat, because any other girl would have swooned when you murmured 'changing your mind' but you just confused me even more. Or you were until you kissed me and then I wasn't confused or anything else, I was just kissing you back because my brain, breath, instincts and all logical sense went poof and disappeared.

And then I ran away... and started our whole stupid cycle over again.

So you'd taken my breath away about five or six times and counting. And we continued with our stupid pattern of you making me frustratingly breathless in your own stupid way.

Then came the time when I finally gave in and just went with the flow.

We'd walked a whiles away from our next camp site where our families and friends slept, and wandered off in to the desert in a companionable silence.

You turned to me and pressed you forehead to mine, giving me the chance to pull away. But I didn't. And right now, I really wish I had. Maybe then it wouldn't hurt so bad.

But I kissed you. Long and hard... passionate. And when we finally pulled away, I accepted it. I accepted that you would always be able to render me breathless.

'I choose you, Max,' you said. I accepted it, and I chose you too.

How I wish that I hadn't. How I wish that I'd hightailed it out of there, or even better, rearranged your face with my fist and told you to go play with somebody else's feeling and break somebody else's heart. Not me, not mine.

Sadly, I didn't turn away. But you know the rest of the story.

We went out, dated. Fell in love. Got breathless many, many times. Oh, and then guess what, oh wait, you already know. You forgot me. Seven happy years of dating down the drain. You stayed out later, said you were busy, refused to tell me what you were doing, the works.

What? Did you find someone better than me? Was I not enough?

Well, whatever. I'm done. We're done. And as you may have noticed by now, I'm gone. Long gone.

This is the last time you will take my breath away. I'm so mad, so pissed, so hurt, that I can't breathe. But I'll get over you, and then I'll breathe in the fresh, clean air and breathe out everything about you. I'll get over just as easily as you got over me.

And I get it, people change their minds. I just never thought that we'd change our minds about us. I don't know what happened to us. I don't know what made you change your mind about us. I thought we were forever, guess I was wrong.

Its just that after all this time, it really kills to see this fall apart, but I'm done waiting.

Sad thing is, even if you didn't, I really loved you.

Have a good life. See you in Hell.

Now officially your ex-girlfriend,

-_Max_

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xMx

_He stared, the letter taut between his hands._

She'd left. She'd left him.

_He could see where the pen pressed in to the paper with anger, where her tears smudged the ink. He could see her anger and pain, her hurt, scrawled across the page._

_He'd never meant to hurt her. It was a mistake, all just a misunderstanding. His intentions weren't bad, she just didn't know the full truth. It was supposed to be a surprise, and one that would take her breath away in an amazing way. Obviously though, it had failed. She'd read all the wrong signals and came out with the worst._

_He had loved her, still did. Always had, always would. He hadn't changed his mind, in fact, it was pretty much the opposite, but Max had always been one to jump to conclusions and charge off, and fortunately, he'd never been the one to let her slip through his fingers._

_He knew just how amazing she was, he knew it better than anyone else. Not even she herself realized the extent of how special she was, how special she was to him. And he was going to show her just how much he loved her, he'd actually been planning it for a while._

_He carefully folded the letter and tucked it in his pocket, smirking at how wrong she was. Oh so wrong._

_He was never not going to be there to take away her breath. He'd make her breathless and then tell her to breathe. He would breathe her in and breathe her out. He would love her forever. He would _not_ give up on her... on them._

xMx

_She was sitting at in the nearest bar, her thoughts having not let her get too far before she needed another escape. Her eyes were rimmed red with unshed tears, drooping from the alcohol. She was slumped in her seat, ignoring the drunken men around her, occasionally attempting to chat her up. Instead she just stared at the empty glass clutched in her hand, too upset to ask for yet another._

_She sat near the back corner at the edge of the counter. His eyes were instantly drawn to her._

_She looked depressed and dishevelled. As she was normally a happy drunk, he knew that she was really hurting. That she was really hurting because of him._

_Shoving his way through the crowd, ignoring the protests, he made his way over to her. He didn't look at her as he took a seat next to her and ordered a bottle of water, and she didn't even acknowledge him, probably not even aware he was there._

_The bartender gave him a strange look, but gave him the water and moved on to serve the next customer._

_Fang cracked open the bottle and took a sip before turning towards her gloomy figure and saying, "You've got it wrong."_

_She glanced up at him blearily, blinking as she focused on him. As soon as she realized who it was, she glared at him. Reaching up, she shoved him off his chair and on to the floor. "No. You've got it wrong," she snarled._

_A few people glanced their way but nobody took much interest in the pair of them as there was no real action._

_Standing up, he put a hand on her shoulder. "Lets get you home. And tomorrow, when you're sober, I'll explain," he said quietly._

_Still glaring at him, she shrugged his hand off and stumbled to her feet. She took a few unsteady steps before straightening up and stalking off without a backwards glance, trying to put as much distance between them as she could in her current state._

_He rolled his eyes and followed her out. If he was the king of stubbornness, the she was, without even a shadow of a doubt, the queen of stubbornness._

_He caught up to her just outside. Grabbing her elbow, he pulled her to a halt, stopping her from walking in to a lamppost._

_He was rather surprised when she turned towards him without a glare etched across her face, and even more surprised when she bent forwards and puked on his shoes. He leapt back, grimacing in disgust._

_She had never been very good at holding her liquor._

_He quickly slipped his shoes off, leaving him in his socks. And then, reaching over, he pulled back Max's hair, keeping it out of the way as her alcohol found its way back up. She gagged, coughing slightly as she finished and then proceeded to wipe her mouth on her sleeve and staggered a few steps back._

_Fang released her hair from his grip and wrapped and arm around her shoulders, steadying her. Unconsciously, she leaned in to him as he led her back to his car, leaving behind his shoes._

_He sighed, knowing that when she awoke tomorrow to find herself still in their apartment, there would be hell to pay. And he would be the one paying it._

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**Well, deck the halls and tralala. What'd you think?**

**If you do choose to favourite this story, please do not do so without reviewing first. And you can just review anyways, because it would make me very happy.**

**To clear up any possible confusion, the regular font is the letter; I wrote it this way as to add more confusion as to what was happening. Max's emotions in the letter slowly got angrier and sadder as she got deeper in to the letter. Though she tries to come off as nonchalant. The letter was typically just background information.**

**And the letter was addressed to Fang, she was just to upset to really want to say or write his name and such.**

**Peace the bob out and remember to BREATHE!**

**-M**

**Steve: Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Steve: No copyright infringement intended.**

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Breathe

Max,

Read ALL of this before you come out of the room and tryto kill me.

I found you drunk at the bar last night and brought you back here. You owe me, you puked on my shoes.

I know you're hurt, but you're wrong. It would be better for me to explain this in person, but I can promise you that I have never cheated on you. Not even close.

There's a tonic at the bedside. Should help with the headache.

-_Fang_

Remember to breathe.

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xMx

_Max stared at the note, raising an eyebrow despite him not being there._

That was it_, she thought. _That was his explanation? Was he crazy? Doesn't he know me better than that? _It__ would take more than that to make her forgive him. He really expected her to just forgive and forget after he wrote that he wasn't cheating on her?_

_She scowled, crumpling up the note and hurling it over her shoulder before a sudden pounding in her head hit her. Putting a hand to her temple, she reached for the tonic at the bedside, taking a gulp._

_Once the pounding in her head subsided, she looked around the room._

_It was their room, or their old room now. The room was, for the most part, tidy. His stuff was the same way she'd left it and her stuff was gone, and she couldn't see her suitcase which had probably been left in the back of her car. There where a few items strewn across the floor, mostly random articles of clothing from Fang's wardrobe that he hadn't gotten around to picking up yet, and... her own clothing..._

_She glared at her clothing as if it would magically reappear on her body, as if it could erase the fact that Fang had taken them off while tucking the drunken Max into bed as one would a child. She scowled at that thought, it wasn't like he hadn't seen her nude, but it seemed inappropriate to even think or be dressed even half that now that he'd broken her heart and she despised him._

_She shivered, noticing for the first time the cool air against her skin. Fang had left her in her bra and underwear as well as the thin tank top she'd been wearing beneath her t-shirt._

_Her scowl deepened as she snatched up the clothing and tugged it over her head._

_Once dressed, she stormed over to the door and yanked it open. The door bounced against the wall and closed partially, to which Max reacted by shoving it back open and glaring around the apartment with a furious expression on her face from where she stood in the doorway._

_With smoke practically coming out of her ears, she marched in to the living room._

_He was sprawled out on the couch, one hand tucked behind his head and the other resting on his abdomen, clutching something small and black, and seemingly boxed shaped object. His eyes were closed and his breathing slow._

_Her lips twitched as she stared at how peaceful and open he looked, forcing back a soft smile. She didn't often get to see him like this and it made her breath catch in her throat. He was normally the last one asleep and the first one up, unable to sleep without knowing she was safe. He always tried to be tough and strong, and he was, but, now, he was beautiful. Angelic and serene it an utterly dignified and manly way._

_Breathe, she told herself. Fixing the scowl back on her face, she crossed her arms over her chest and kicked the couch, awakening him._

_His eyes snapped open and he was immediately on his feet, his hand clenched white around the object in his hand. He blinked, his shoulders relaxing slightly when he realized it was only her. He quickly slipped the box in to his pocket and stared down at her, his face a void of emotion._

_Black eyes meeting brown._

_She was almost sad to see the relaxed, open side of Fang disappear._

_"Max..." he breathed, subconsciously reaching out and stroking her cheek with his thumb. "You're wrong."_

_She glared at him, jerking away from his touch but immediately missing the calming feeling of his touch, not that she showed it. Raising an eyebrow, she said, "And are you going to tell me what I'm wrong about, oh mighty wise one?"_

_Hesitating, he took a step closer, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear and unwittingly sending shivers down her spine. "There's no one better for me than you, never has been, never will be. I never changed my mind about us, I never stopped loving you. And I'm never not going to be around to take away your breath," he said. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the black box back out of his pocket and fiddled around with it nervously._

_"I was just looking for this," he said, taking her hands in his and pressing the box in to her hands._

_Max frowned, her fingers curling around the edge of the small box... jewelry box. She blinked, realizing that that was what it was. She breathed out slowly, opening the lid. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the silver band, studded with a small diamond and encircled with miniscule obsidians._

_"Will you marry me?" he asked. His heart stopped and time froze as he awaited her answer._

xMx

_Her thoughts came in rapid fire, going like this;_

a) What the hell?

b) Awww... so cute!

c) Wait... that's me!

d) AHHHH! What the fuck?

e) ...

f) ...did he really just... did he actually... ask me to marry him...?

g) Wait. Wait for it...

h) MOUTH! WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING WORK! TALK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! FOR MY SANITY! FOR THE LOVE... AND HATE OF NICHOLAS 'FANG' RIDE! JUST FUCKING ASNWER THE DAMN QUESTION! FOR NARNIA!

g) Wow. I have a potty brain.

h) Oh, wait. Did I really just think all of that? For Narnia?Really?

i) ...

j) Now, where was I...?

_A strange expression crossed her face, a frown creasing between her eyebrows. And then her face contorted to look rather constipated as she scrambled to regain her lost brain cells and remember why she'd lost them in the first place._

_"Huh?" she blurted out, flushing red as she realized what'd she had said._

_Fang frowned, staring down at her with confusion and a little bit of hurt. "Will you marry me?" he asked, reaching up and running the back of his hand down the side of her face._

_Max slapped his hand away, forgetting his words at the sparks his touch ignited._

_He raised an eyebrow. "So, you're answer is...?"_

_Her frown deepened. "What the hell?"And then, thrusting her fist in the air, she shouted, "For Narnia!" And then she promptly kissed him._

_"Don't I hate you?" she mumbled, her lips still firmly attached to his._

_His lips moved against hers, curving into a smirk as he took in her words. Pulling away, he nuzzled her neck, causing a low moan to rise from her throat. He nipped at the skin, sucking tenderly on it. "Dunno. Do you?" he asked huskily, lifting his head. Fire and passion roared in his eyes as he stared down at her._

_But he didn't wait for an answer, choosing instead to crush his lips back to hers, rendering her both speechless and breathless._

xMx

_Both Fang and Max were breathing heavily when they finally pulled apart._

_"Breathless?" he teased, a soft smile playing across his lips as he stared down at her with a deep intensity while twirling a long strand of golden brown hair between his fingers. "Sooo... is that a yes?"_

_Attempting to appear calm and unaffected by him despite her ragged breathing, she tossed her hair over her shoulder, smoothly replying, "Sure."_

_He smirked, rolling his eyes slightly. "Love ya too, babe."_

_She matched his smirk with her own, running a now ring bearing hand down his chest. "Right back at ya, hon," she whispered, nibbling seductively on his earlobe. "Right back at ya."_

* * *

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of

Maximum Sophia 'Max' Martinez

and

Nicholas Cade 'Fang' Ride

On Tuesday afternoon,

October the 8th,

At five o'clock

250 Copperstone Avenue

Followed by a reception.

* * *

xMx

_"DID YOU GIVE ME A HICKEY!" a loud voice roared from the other room._

_He smirked knowingly. There would be hell to pay. And he would happily spend the rest of his life paying it. After all, no one ever said love was easy._

_See you in Hell._

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*****Please do not favourite without first reviewing! Thanks!**

**Bye, peoples! Bob out!**

**-M**

**Steve: Au revoir. À la prochain fois dans la prochain histoire.**


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